


Sanji Vinsmoke

by lollaika



Category: One Piece
Genre: Assassin Sanji, Emotional Abuse, Gen, mentions of abuse, what I imagine would have happened if Sanji stayed with the Vinsmokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lollaika/pseuds/lollaika
Summary: Sanji never escaped the Vinsmokes, instead being trained to be a perfect assassin. Now he has a new target. Trafalgar D. Water Law.Then he encounters the StrawhatsWritten for One Piece Secret Santa 2016





	

The door is dark and looming and his small hand raised, just short of connecting, when the booming voice calls him inside. He squares his shoulders, feels his spine straighten and his muscles tighten and opens the door to step into the brightly lit room. His eyes remain firmly on the floor, but he knows the room, knows the expanding walls, the upraised throne on the other end, the flags flying behind it, proudly declaring who exactly sits upon that chair. Before he reaches the middle of the room he stops, drops to his knees and lowers his forehead to the floor. This spot is familiar and some of his muscles relax at assuming the well-learned position.

Silence reigns.

He waits. A heartbeat, a sigh, from above and up front, but not from him, never from him.

“Sit up.”

His forehead leaves the floor, his weight settles on his feet and knees and his hands are loosely held in front of him, still he doesn’t raise his eyes. He knows better.

The rustle of paper, the creaking of a chair and then footsteps. They stop just outside his periphery but a thick folder is thrown just in front of his knees. He doesn’t touch it, waits for the silence to end, for permission to be granted. A disappointed sigh behind him, then:

“That is your new mission. Take him alive and be back within two months – the wedding is in three and I won’t explain to Big Mum that it has to be postponed because the groom didn’t manage to make it in time.”

More footsteps, a hand on his cheek. He tries to hold back a flinch but it is still visible on the edge of his mouth. An almost voiceless rebuttal, far, far too considerate for his mistake and then a hand in his hair, almost pulling.

“Do not disappoint me, Sanji.”

His eyes widen without his permission. The name rolls down his shoulders, his back, drops down his spine and onto the floor, making him want to shiver. Sanji, Sanji, Sanji.

A sharp twist, some loose strands of hair falling and fast steps walking away, like thunderclaps, violent and unchangeable.

“Dismissed.”

He rises, soundless, grasps the folder, turns on his heel and leaves the room, his eyes only looking up to find the doorknob. There’s conversation behind him. One of his brothers had been there. It doesn’t matter. He has a mission.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Target: Trafalgar D. Water Law, Pirate Captain, former Shichibukai, Supernova  
Mission goal: Kidnapping  
Allotted time: 2 months  
Permitted weapons: All  
Permitted Backup: None  
Permitted use of force: All that will not be reported to the authorities.  
Additional: Target is in an alliance with Monkey D. Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy is not to be killed. Target believed to be headed toward Zou.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After two weeks of endless blue he arrives at Zou. It is faster than he expected and gives him about thirty days to accomplish his mission. The generous timeframe is a luxury he has not always had, but it is also an indicator that this will be difficult. Missteps will lead to failure. Failure is not permitted.  
The elephant is gigantic and the air currents created through its movements difficult to navigate with his skywalk, but he does manage to circle it. Besides the ship tied to its left hind leg nothing else is around. He recognizes the Jolly Roger immediately, a white skull adorned with a Straw-hat. It seems to be unmanned. He lands on the deck to look around. 

The structure of the ship is good, the craftsmanship superb. Adam wood – so the Strawhats had to have had money at some point – and an aquarium beneath deck. Solid ideas. The bathroom is huge, the mast should not support the whole weight of the sports equipment stashed in the crow’s nest/gym, but it does and the kitchen is spacey, even if not in proper use and poorly equipped. The food is still without mold, so the crew had to have docked recently.

He walks onto the deck again, looks around, but he cannot see the Heart Pirates’ submarine anywhere. He will not go swimming to look for it. Chances are it is so deep, that he will not able to take the water pressure. He will go up. He has a mission to fulfill and prey to catch.

The way is long and his legs are tired, but tiredness he knows from the cold days of no sleep and he pushes through. The little monkey with the red hat is almost small and fast enough, but he catches the movement out of the corner of his eye and a thrown knife later the problem is no more. He goes to collect the knife and throws the monkey in a wide arch; leaves before he can see him and its little red hat drop into the sea. Dead things always fall.

Zou is silent, grieving. There is weeping in the air, so staunch that he can taste it. It gets worse toward the middle of the elephants back. He tunes into his Haki, expands it until it reaches across the whole of Zou There are two points of bustling activity painted on the map behind his eyes. He walks. 

Signs of destruction are everywhere. Fallen trees, indents in the elephant’s skin looking like animal prints, the shattered gate. The city itself does not look better. The cuts and broken bits are all newly made, the buildings themselves structurally sound. They should have kept for at least another hundred years even on the back of a moving animal. There is no food left inside them, or money and clothes, so enough time had to have gone by for rescue and rebuilding measures to have started. He knows of only one person able to do so much damage in that short of a time frame, but there is no conceivable reason for Kaido to have send Jack to Zou. 

He refrains from calling and giving an update to Ichiji. As long as there is no obvious connection between the state of Zou and Trafalgar D. Water Law it will not change his mission goal or parameters and would be judged a waste of time. Adjustments must be worked into the time frame by himself. It is only minimal, as Jack has already left. The presence of Kaido’s calamities never goes unnoticed.

As deserted as the town is, it makes for a safe base. There is a bed in a building with an intact roof. He double checks the doors, sets up a few traps and reaffirms his Haki, before lowering himself onto the sheets. It has been a long time since he slept in a bed and the journey to Zou was a harsh one. A break after two weeks of work and a good lead on the timeframe is permissible. For the way back he could steal Trafalgar D. Water Law’s submarine, or Monkey D. Luffy’s ship.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nami watches her Captain faithfully. Ever since Doflamingo and the tumbling town that almost crushed them. It is an indulgence. She used to watch Nojiko after Bellemere died, used to listen to her sisters breathing and her own heart would flutter in her chest and her eyes would burn and her hands would shake. With Luffy it’s different. With Luffy it’s her chest that has problems drawing breath, with Luffy it’s her legs that refuse to go where her ever outstretched arms would like to be. With Luffy it’s different but oh so the same. It is an indulgence – a weakness that she will not let win.

She watches her Captain and she is glad that he still smiles. That he can still laugh and have fun and drink and eat merrily with others in trust. He has shown her how to and she tries, oh how she tries, but sometimes she needs a moment to herself. Zoro is the same. All of them are. Burning bright with their dreams and needing the loneliness to not burn themselves out.

She leaves the party, her gaze still on her Captain, settles at the edges and breathes in and out. The air is colder here, away from the fire and she shivers. It’s okay though. Just what she needed. A way to pull her back to reality. To remind her of the sight that had greeted them, when they came. To remind her of half dead Minks, poison in the air, the cackle of a Maniac and Robins’ gaze as she assessed the damage done to a Millennia old city.

There are tears on her cheek and she watches Luffy smile. She’s seen it so often, so, so often. It’s blinding.

A blanket drops over her shoulders and she burrows into the warmth, gaze still on the rubber smile that made her leave her hometown. Zoro settles next to her, sake cup in his hand. He’s silent as she raises her hand to wipe away the tear tracks. They’ve not done this often, but they have been with Luffy the longest, have survived the most together; learned when a silence and retreat from the other was a wish to be alone and when it was a wish for comfort. Zoro is better at this than she is, but they’ll never admit it.

He waits for her to have settled, waits until the fire has burned down and their Captain has fallen asleep on top of Nekomamushi’s stomach, waits until she can see his chest rise and fall steadily. Then he puts down his sake cup.

“There was something two days ago, I don’t know what exactly and before you ask I did go out and look, but it’s disappeared on me.”

“Have you…”

“I have asked Usopp, but his Observation Haki hasn’t picked up on anything suspicious the last week. But then again, he has been occupied with Raizo, hasn’t he?”

“I suppose he was. Why did you wait so long to tell me?”

“It might be nothing. It has been nothing for two days. But…”

She considers him. Zoro is shit at directions, but his instincts, those are another matter. 

“Have you consulted Law?”

He snorts. She gives him a sharp look and he shrugs his shoulders, which she supposes is answer enough. Of all of them Luffy is the one fondest of Law. For them he is – well he has bled for them, as they did for him, but he is still outside, wishes to be outside, of their crew for all she can read him. It’s just that he is arguably, after Luffy, the strongest person on this island. Zoro himself might beg to differ, but Nami knows. Law is… calculating. Ruthless. Hurt. But then again, they all are.

She looks at Luffy; huddles deeper into her blanket.

“Will you tell him?”

“You know that he would want to check it out himself.”

It’s her time to snort. Their Captain sure is predictable. If one knows him anyway.

“Maybe we should tell Robin first.”

He nods; extends his arm in invitation. She smiles, leans into him, closes her eyes. She knows he will watch Luffy for her. He’s always done so.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  


He turns into nothing, waits, and watches. The Mink children play in the woods and their forces are stretched thin. Injured. One of Trafalgar D. Water Law’s crewmembers is a Mink. It is the only one wearing a differently coloured overall. One of the only ones mingling with this countries people, similar as the Strawhats. 

Monkey D. Luffy has not stopped sleeping or eating or celebrating in all of a week. His crewmember’s efforts to locate the uneasiness felt by Roronoa Zoro fail. Nico Robins’ eyes cannot see what is not there, no matter where she lets them grow. They stop actively searching but remain vigilant. The giant cat is not. However, the dog is. He must strike during the moons time.

It is a wait for opportunity. He has always been the most patient one of his father’s children.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zoro is tired of Zou, of the grey of the elephant’s skin and the green of the trees. He’s tired of the Mink’s garchuuing and Luffy’s endless party mood. He’s tired of the feeling of eyes on the back of his head. Watching. Waiting. They’ve found nothing, not even Robin and Usopp, who admittedly are better at spotting things than he is and still the feeling persists.

He is wandering, when a group of Minks races by. Their voices are concerned, panicked and they don’t stop to talk to him. The weight of his swords on his hip feels somehow more prominent. Kitetsu starts to pull at his hand, yearning to be drawn out of its sheath. He ignores it, settles a hand instead on Wado Ichimonji.  
Now, that he is paying attention he can feel groups of Minks running around the island. Something has happened. It better not be Luffy – he’ll kill the kid himself if he made Zoro concerned for no reason.

He starts walking faster, more determined and the green of the trees are now a backdrop against his probing mind trying to find something that doesn’t belong. The Minks are loud in their searching, screaming and jumping all over the place. Searching for a lost kid. Zoro doesn’t join. Instead he walks toward the quiet.  
It takes a while but then he sees them. Law is getting carried by one of his crew. They’re walking away from the Minks’ upheaval and out of the woods. Law is motionless on top of the guys’ shoulder. Zoro figures, if that’s what the other Captain wants to do, then that is his business and he should let the guy be. But he still wants to talk to Law so he would wait until the surgeon seemed approachable. 

He settles his pace and follows the pair until they reach the back of Zou, follows them back down and onto the Sunny. Why on the Sunny? Why not on their submarine? 

Zoro wants to ask exactly that, when the blond turns around to let Law down and sees Zoro for the first time. Wait. The blonde? Did Law have blondes with curly eyebrows in his crew? His hand tightens on Wado. Kitetsu is screaming at him.

The guy smiles. His eyes widen as he steps out of the overall, revealing a black suit with several knives strapped to it. He cocks his head, draws one of the knives. Then he attacks.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Usopp is accompanying Wanda on her search for Jordan, when Zoro’s little light dies in the back of his mind. He almost drops his Kuro Kabuto in his surprise, curses, and then screams to Wanda.

“Do you know where Luffy is? Zoro’s in trouble!”

She stops short, turns around and hoist him on her back before he can blink. There is no time to make his opinion on the matter heard, as she takes off immediately, rushing through the thick bushes, racing along well walked tracks. If he opened his mouth, he would catch and swallow bugs, that’s how fast they are.

But Wanda does the job and after a few seconds she comes to a halt before a grinning Luffy. She lets go of him, and he stumbles down, almost falls on his ass, but he doesn’t care because…

“Luffy, Zoro’s in trouble! He’s at the ship, you’ve got to go, I’ll get the others!”

And it never ceases to surprise Usopp, even though he’s seen it often enough, the way Luffy can go from happy go lucky to deadly serious in the blink of an eye. Luffy doesn’t even question him, he just nods, extends one of his arms and is gone.

“I think it would be best if you went and told everyone who stayed at the foot of the whale and I search out the ones’ who’ve been helping us search. That way we would be fastest.”

He nods once and he doesn’t even have to look, he can feel her leave. His Haki is telling him now that Luffy is on his way, that Wanda will get to Nami, Franky and Brook in about ten minutes and if he is fast, he can get to Robin and Chopper in five. He runs.

They don’t hesitate, when he shows up. Chopper is treating a patient, one of the musketeers, but as it’s not life threatening he just gets a tidy last bandage and a quick dismissal. Robin just drops her book. And then they’re on their way. Luffy has already reached the ship, Usopp can feel him, can feel his anger pulsing, wanting to bubble over the calm that Luffy normally exudes. It’s unsettling to feel him as Usopp felt him when Luffy was fighting Doflamingo. This is Zou, there just had been a big battle with big losses. In none of the stories were the days of celebrating cut short. Not like this.

He doesn’t even notice it, but he’s the one running in front, Chopper even with his four legs and long stride is falling back, and still Usopp keeps pushing. There is nothing scarier than someone strong enough to take Zoro out. There is nothing scarier than someone who has the potential to best Luffy, to take their Captain away from them.

The closer he gets the angrier Luffy feels and the less is Usopp able to distinguish between the two presences fighting, to tell who is winning and who is losing. He just knows that Luffy is angry. He just knows that the other person is calm. Detached. He hooks up one of his ropes to a sturdy looking tree and jumps down the hind leg of the giant elephant.

The rope stops short of the boat, but that is all right with Usopp, he works better from a distance anyway. He puts on his goggles, focuses the lens and then he can see them.

Luffy is fighting a blond guy, dressed up in a black suit, who has a lot of knives. Oh shit. And obviously knows how to use them. The guy moves fast enough to sidestep Luffy’s attack and kicks strong enough to send Luffy back flying. He swings his right arm forward, blood flying from the blade in a dull red arch and almost manages to cut across Luffy’s throat. Usopp swallows.

He can see Luffy trying to say something, he can see the blonde guy not answering and then he can see the deadly battle continuing, one he isn’t sure Luffy will win. He draws Kuro Kabuto and aims. Carefully. He doesn’t want to hit Zoro or Law, who are both lying on the ships deck, Zoro’s green robes turned dark brown, and Usopp doesn’t think about what that means. He doesn’t. He also doesn’t want to hit Luffy, who is bouncing all over the place, now in Gear Second, and he waits. He waits for that golden moment, when he can see with perfect clarity, when he can see a few seconds into the future, where he knows that his shot will hit. He waits, he aims, he lets loose.

The bullet whistles through the air, a high-pitched sound almost undetectable and it connects with a black arm. A black arm? O shit, Haki. The guy turns, looks at him and Usopp can see his eyes, so wide, that the white drowns out the actual pupil, so wide, that they almost make him miss the curled eyebrow and the lack of other facial expression. Then the guys leg pushes off the ship, and then pushes off the air and holy shit he’s flying! He’s flying and coming towards Usopp. O shit, oh shit, oh shit.

Usopp ducks, raises his arm to shield his face, and hopes, and prays, and then he can feel it vibrating in his bones. Luffy’s Haki.

“Stop hurting my Nakama!” It reverberates in his body, it fills his heart and head, and makes him feel safe and protected. He lowers his arms. The guy’s eyes are a few centimetres away from him and his expression is unchanging. Usopp breathes and the blonde starts falling down, down, down. Before he drops into the ocean Luffy jumps after him. Usopp curses, cuts himself loose and dives after his idiot of a Captain.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He wakes up bound to a bed. He hurts, but that is not what unsettles him. Usually when he hurts he is not bandaged. Or covered in weird smelling salves. Or resting at all. Usually when he hurts he has failed and failures must be pushed through until they have been turned into wins. That means no sleep, no rest, no food, no water, until his father nods.

His father has not yet nodded. And still he had been asleep after a fight. This must be his biggest failure yet. He wonders why they take the time to treat him before the punishment. Maybe Ichiji wants a blank canvas for his artwork. Or maybe Niji wants to watch the proceedings, he always had a wish to soil the pure. Not that he can be made pure with some salves and bandages – no. It simply must be that his biggest failure yet also results in the biggest punishment yet. It would be right, meaningful, teaching a lesson. He will bear down and endure it, then he will make his obeisance and his apologies. Someone else will have righted his wrongs by that time. He will have to prove his worth with a new mission.

The door opens.

A reindeer walks in.

His father never had a reindeer, so…

This must be Tony Tony Chopper. Monkey D. Luffy’s subordinate. He has failed. This is undisputable. But, he has a second chance. He will take it.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The atmosphere on the ship is tense. Zoro is in critical condition and even though Chopper has confidence that their swordsman will make it, the realization that they almost lost him sits heavily in their hearts. The fact that Luffy has insisted to have the assailant treated on their ship in the cabin right next to the infirmary were Zoro rests isn’t helping. At least they managed to convince him of the necessity of binding him to that bed. Franky himself had tested those bindings and Nami had checked and removed all possible weapons from the guy’s body, so they should be safe.

Still Robin finds herself waiting for Chopper in front of the rooms door. She is restless, unsettled. According to the good doctor their captive should wake up soon and after Nami had stripped him down, they had all seen it. Brook was the one who recognized the 66 tattooed over the blonde’s heart. Robin recognized the name Brook had muttered. Germa.

She had thought the days of assassins lay behind her. This proves her wrong. She has questions, so many questions and her only way to an answer is waiting in that room. Chopper had ordered everyone to leave him and the patient alone. She knows it’s for the best of the blonde’s recovery as well as Choppers peace of mind. If he is alone with the guy he can pretend that it’s just another patient, just one more person to patch up and not someone who has attacked his crewmates, his Nakama, his family. She doesn’t want to take that from him, so she waits.

It takes half an hour. It is half an hour of total silence, but Robin is used to that; takes the time to gather her thoughts and prepare her questions. Then Chopper comes out of the room, face grim and strangely solemn. She breathes in, reaches out and he burrows into her, silent teardrops falling. Robin knows that the assassin had no external injuries, so whatever had been written deep within the marrow of his bone, whatever he had been exposed to over the time before he took Law had to be… had to be…

She steels herself, tightens her fingers in Chopper’s fur, before letting go and straightening up. He looks at her, the way he looked at her after the Buster Call, after he had tended to her wounds silently and gently and she feels warm, protected, strong. She opens the door.

The blonde watches her enter, the tattoo visible on his naked chest and his wrists bound tight. His body is coiled, on the ready. She has seen this way of holding oneself. She had seen it in others and in herself for a whole decade. There is a chair in the far-left corner of the room. She takes it, scrapes it all the way over to his bed on the right, listens to it screech and catches the way he carefully does not flinch. A pawn then. They send a pawn after Law, one of the Supernovas, a former Shichibukai. A deadly pawn.

Positioning the chair just so far from him that he cannot reach her with his seemingly slack fingers she sits down and regards him. He is slim if not slightly malnourished and there are scars littered over his skin like a child’s crude drawing, intersecting, jagged, some left without care puckering. In stark contrast, there is a circle of precisely placed burns starting just under his navel and reaching underneath his trousers. If she had to guess she would bet on a cigarette being the weapon of choice for that.

“Do you have a name?”

He doesn’t answer, but he isn’t avoiding the eye contact she is trying to establish. He has blue eyes. They do not emote and in that they are far more expressive than everything else.

“Why does Germa 66 want Law?”

Again, she is met with silence. It is very likely that he does not know, as pawns rarely do, but the swirl of his eyebrow identifies him as part of the Vinsmoke family. She has heard stories about them using the curl to bewitch people, to hypnotise and betray. She never paid them much attention but for the fact that it was an identification marker. A weakness. And now she is confronted with the identification marker for royalty on the same body that tells a story of pain. Robin had known and worked for Crocodile, but even he hadn’t deliberately hurt those that were part of his organization, no less part of the inner circle.

“If you don’t tell us our Captain has decided to ask your father himself. We’re already reaching out for information regarding his location.”

She doesn’t need to tell him that Luffy had no intention of asking that man anything, but only to punch him in the face. Preferably hard. With Haki. His eyes widen a fraction. Then he regains control. Robin smiles at him, thinks of Jaguar D. Saul, Aokiji and then of Luffy until the smile and the warmth reaches her eyes.

“If you want something just tell us. If you cannot speak and need something else to communicate please nod now.”

His head remains still. Robin stands up, dusts off the none existent dirt from her knees and lifts the chair into the air to silently drop it back where she took it from. He relaxes a fraction. She smiles, small and soft to herself, then turns around to face him once more.

“I’ll be back this evening with food for you. Somebody will check on you every hour. I’ll lock the door, even though that wouldn’t stop you. Just know that we are on the sea, on our way to your father and that Law is never going to be alone as long as you remain on this boat.”

With that she leaves the room. She has a war meeting to attend.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Law is sitting at the kitchen table, a platter of sandwiches he doesn’t like but is still going to eat in front of him, when the door opens and Nico Robin walks in. Nami, who had been sitting next to him, stands up and walks toward the counter, fills a cup of tea and then returns to the table to place it in front of Robin. He can smell it. Heady, tangerine. Robin sweetens it with a spoonful of sugar, then stirs it before placing the spoon next to the cup with a soft clink.

“He’s just a weapon. And we won’t get information through violent means – nothing we’ll be able to do is going to be more painful or disturbing than what he is used to.”

Nami sighs. Law shares the sentiment, adds a ton of anger onto it and bites down whatever comment he was going to make. Ever since he had allied with Luffy he had learned that the way he used to do things don’t work anymore. He hadn’t even known of Germa’s existence until after he got kidnapped by one of them and then rescued like a freaking damsel in distress. If Doflamingo had known about them he hadn’t seen fit to share his knowledge with Law.

“What do Assassins even want from you? Law? Law?”

He turned to Nami. In Dressrosa he had withheld information. In Dressrosa he had almost died.

“I can perform a surgery that makes the patient immortal. I would die during the process, but if that didn’t matter to Doflamingo then what would it matter to somebody who has never met me and has assassins at the ready?”

“Men’s hubris. Always wanting to live beyond their time.” Robin accompanied her words with a shrug.

“Anyway, I think our best bet to actually get information out of him is to be nice and kind. I propose that only Nami, Chopper and I will interact with him for now. We look the least threatening. Also, we should give him something to do and choices. He should be able to make choices. Maybe if he decides that we’re nicer than his family he will actually help.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On day four of their journey Luffy is bored. There are no fish biting, Zoro is back to full training, even if Chopper tries to restrict it, and no fun to tease anymore, Brooks tunes start repeating themselves, Usopp and Franky have gone off to work on a great idea, Law has retired to the study to read, Nami is busy navigating and Chopper is mixing stuff for his medicine. If Nami is right, and she always is, it will take five more days until he can punch the man responsible for making Zoro bleed and Law to withdraw after having finally started to open up. 

But Robin is currently making food, so maybe he’ll find entertainment there. He hops down from the railing, stretches his arms to the mast and flies across to ship to land in front of the kitchen door. There is humming inside. He throws it open.

His archaeologist is standing at the counter slowly cooking rice and adding parts of different things to a sauce inside a pan. He tries to sneak in and snatch one of the pieces of meat, but she smacks his hand aside without even looking up.

“There will be food for you later. I’ll first bring this to our little assassin and then we’ll eat.”

Luffy nods, sits down, stretches his arm and tries again. He fails again. If eating isn’t an option against boredom, then that curly eyed man will surely be.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door opens and Nico Robin, the demon child, walks in. She carries a tray with food and water. Behind her is Monkey D. Luffy, hat swinging freely on his back. He dashes in front of Nico Robin and jumps onto him. His muscles tense upon the impact but the boy does nothing else.

Nico Robin once again moves the chair next to his bed, sits down and places the tray on the bed. She smiles at Monkey D. Luffy, then looks to him, questioning. 

“Do you want to drink first, or eat first?” she asks. He knows, that if he will not choose one or the other, she will simply sit there and let the hours waste away. She had done it the first night. And the second.

Monky D. Luffy gazes at them, then frowns.

“Why aren’t you untying him? He can’t eat without his hands.”

Nico Robin withdraws her gaze from him to look at her Captain.

“If I untie him it is very likely that he will attack.”

“He won’t.” Monkey D. Luffy crosses his arms in front of his chest, his eyebrows are drawn downward and the edge of his mouth goes from upward, smiling to straight. He represses a shudder. This is no child sitting upon his legs.

“Luffy he tried to kidnap Law and then almost killed Zoro, it is very reasonable…”

“He won’t. I won against him, so he won’t”

Nico Robin sighs, then bends down and unties one of his hands. She slackens the rope on his other side, then helps him to sit up. The angle is pulling at his entire left upper body, but he still felt better than he has in days, weeks, years. She puts the tray in his lap, then sits back down in her chair.

He casts his eyes down, where they linger on his hand and the spoon. There are slight tremors in his movements and the spoon shakes but he manages to eat. One spoonful, two spoonful, three, four, five… At thirty-four he stops counting because the platter is empty. He takes the glass of water and drains that, too. 

The man on his legs is vibrating with energy. He can feel that it is barely contained and prepares himself for the stillness that comes with being secured in a spot, when Monkey D. Luffy pats his hand.

“Did you like it? Was it tasty? I love Robins cooking, she is the best at frying and…”

He does not listen. Instead he looks at his hand in Monkey D. Luffys; at the touch that has no purpose; at the touch that is neither commanding nor punishing.

“It was overcooked. Ten minutes.”

He only registers that he spoke after the fact. The sermon above him stills and he tenses, curls slightly in on himself while offering his cheek for easy access.

He is not hit. Instead Monkey D. Luffy grabs his hand a tiny bit tighter and brings it up between their faces. His own eyes are still glued to their hands, so he follows, until he looks Monkey D. Luffy in the eyes.

“You can cook?”

His silence is taken for agreement.

“That is awesome! You should cook for us! Maybe you can do something with meat? I caught this giant fish two days ago, it’s not a Sea King, because that wouldn’t fit in the tank but it’s still three times the length of me. Robin! Robin! Untie him!”

And that is how he is whisked out of the room he had been confined in and thrust into the kitchen.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s on the seventh day of their journey, when Brook watches the assassin in the kitchen, a job that he often does when their captive is cooking to ensure that no poison is being added, and because, no matter how the guy attacks Brook, he won’t be able to kill him with kitchen appliances, that he learns their captives name.

Luffy comes running into the room, as he so often does, but not trying to steal the food that is being prepared. He looks at the blonde, regards the eyebrow with that thoughtful look he sometimes has, that Brook loves because it reminds him that his Captain understands so much more than Brook himself ever will. Then he tilts his head.

“What’s your name?”

The blonde doesn’t turn around. The grip of his hand on the knife is tight and the knuckles white. Brook sees the tremor. He looks at the dullish grey of a soul that the man possesses, imagines a tiny glint at the middle.

“Sanji.”

Luffy grins.

“Thank you, Sanji, for all the delicious food you’ve been making!”

And then Luffy is gone again. Their whirlwind of a Captain, always on the move, never standing still. Brook looks back to the guy again – no to Sanji again – and this time the middle of his grey soul is a flickering blue. It’s staggering in its intensity. He wishes that he could see more of it.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On day nine they can see the Germa snails on the horizon. Franky grins, loads the cannon he and Usopp specially built just in case this story was true – because who in their right mind travelled the sea on gigantic snails? Victory was basically guaranteed. How lucky they were that Zoro had been the last person responsible for buying food.

Usopp takes position and aims once they are near enough. The Germa have seen them but it’s too late now and Franky booms across the ship: “Ready to fire Captain!”

The answer is clear and even louder and filled with anger. He knocks on the cannon, once, twice, then Usopp pushes the trigger. They watch the small bags fly across the sky, explode over the Germa and rain down salt; watch the snails jerk, shrivel and drown; watch as two of the snails, the fastest, escape and turn towards them. Long range is over. Franky can already see Zoro, Luffy, Robin and Chopper readying for close combat, can see Usopp leave the cannon and climb up the mast to get the best birds-eye perspective on the battlefield. Sanji is with Law and Law’s crew on the submarine, a little behind the Sunny. They can watch but they won’t interfere.

Franky grins. There are assholes to punch. He loves days like this.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The battle has gone on for hours when Sanji turns to Law. The surgeon doesn’t need him to ask, he just gestures and then the submarine is moving closer. Luffy’s battle had been long and drawn out, but now it was dying down, the last battle still being carried out.

He wants to be there. He needs to be there. 

He doesn’t know when he decided, when he understood that the crew was something he could have, that he needn’t return to Germa.

When they arrive at the snail boat the sight of his father on his knees greets him, bloodied and broken. Luffy stands next to him, arms raised to the sky. He steps onto the boat and his father turns to him, disappointed sigh on his tongue.

“Sanji. You had a mission.”

He nods. This is true.

“There is still a chance to redeem yourself my son. There is still a chance to make me proud. Kill them Sanji, and all shall be given to you.”

His father’s voice is soft. He sinks to his knees, trembling, trembling, bones bow down. But then there is a hand on his back, supporting, comforting, uplifting.

“Sanji will do no such thing. He is the cook of my crew and if you ever, ever hurt him again I will do worse than today.”

It’s Luffy. It’s Luffy and Sanji is crying, tears falling down his face, as another pair of arms grab his shoulders and drag him up. Up and away, over the still bodies of his siblings and back to the Sunny and into the kitchen and then he loses himself in the process of making grilled Sea King and after he emerges, after he can look up and focus again, he recognizes that Zoro is the one sitting with him. Or rather relaxing with him, as the swordsman’s eyes are closed.

Sanji tries a smile, but it won’t fit on his face. Not yet. He returns to his meat, but he still hears Zoro speak.

“Once you feel up for it, let’s have a rematch cook. I promise I won’t lose again.”

Sanji doesn’t know why, but somehow that sounds like fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thank you for reading this.  
> If somebody is inspired by this please do write some more about Sanji as a Vinsmoke (I have a mighty thirst)  
> There's several things I didn't include or explain, like the fact that for me the strawhats are more emotionally dependent on each other in this 'verse, because Sanji wasn't there to take on that role. Let's be real, the kitchen is the perfect place for emotional conversations and comfort food is a science onto itself.
> 
> Also for me the Strawhats did meet with Kin'emon and Momonnosuke and they did help them but they seperated at Dressrosa as again Sanji was one of the main people responsible for that relationship. Also in this the Strawhats stayed together at Dressrosa to boost their attacking strength, which accounts for the time differences of this 'verse and canon. 
> 
> I would have loved to include all this, but I did have a deadline. Maybe one day I'll write it in more detail (unlikely)
> 
> So if you want to talk more about this verse with me leave a comment <3


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